Redemption
by Frank Crowell
Summary: Calvin gets a jolt from the past, and takes a trip home


"Opening statements from the defense," the judge said.  
  
"You're honor, ladies and gentlemen of the jury" Calvin said, "my client is only six years old...can we really be expected to believe that he deliberately set fire to his house? That is just preposterous! I don't know what else to say."  
  
"And the prosecution?"  
  
"Is a six year old..." the prosecuting attorney drawled, "...incapable of torturing a cat, beating up a peer, or indeed...setting fire to a house, simply because of their age? Are small children universally designated to be innocent, incapable of doing wrong? The prosecution is not naive enough to believe that, and I don't think you, the jury, are either. That's all your honor." The judge turned to Calvin,  
  
"you may call your first witness."  
  
"The defense calls Melvin Cross to the stand." The six year old boy whom everyone believed burned his house down walked to the witness stand and sat down, Calvin approached him, smiled, "Melvin," he said, "you love your family, don't you?"  
  
"sure, they're crazy sometimes, but for the most part they're alright," Melvin replied.  
  
"You're home, your belongings, your toys, you like all those things, and you wouldn't want them to be destroyed, right?"  
  
"right, especially my toys...and the TV."  
  
"Of course," Calvin said, smiling, "so you wouldn't want to do anything to hurt those, would you?"  
  
"nope."  
  
"no further questions, your honor."  
  
"your witness, counselor," the prosecuting attorney walked to the stand,  
  
"Melvin," the prosecuting attorney asked, "when you set fire to your house..."  
  
"I didn't even do it!" Melvin burst, "it was my bear! He did it!!" He suddenly turned to the little stuffed bear on the defense table, "you did so! Don't even try to deny it!!" The words struck Calvin suddenly and his heart beat rapidly.  
  
**************  
"It was unbelievable...it was exactly the same words I used a thousand times when I was his age..." Calvin said with his head in his hands  
  
"What happened to Melvin?" Calvin's wife Susan asked.  
  
"We managed to pull off an insanity plea...it was the only way we could even come close to winning...poor kid, stuck in a hospital that way...but I couldn't believe it...the way he sounded...exactly like me..."  
  
"Are you okay?" Susan asked.  
  
"I want to take a trip to my parents place. I think it's time I pay them a visit. Make amends."  
  
*************  
After the car was packed, they left. They drove for hours. It was already getting dark when they left and halfway through the trip it was pitch black. Calvin looked out the window and for the briefest of moments he saw, or thought he saw, a small red spaceship crash by the roadside and a diminutive goggled figure crawling out and collapsing. Calvin shook his head and it disappeared, to be replaced by a crimson streak go across the sky, then falter and fall from the sky. He squeezed his eyes shut tight and it, too, was gone.  
  
*************  
A couple hours later he pulled into the driveway of his parents' house and walked up to the door and knocked. His mother answered, "Calvin!" She said, "it's been forever, come in, how are you, dear?"  
  
"Well, I've been thinking lately...about how I...was...I wanted to say I'm sorry for everything."  
  
"You were a little boy...nobody expects little boys to be perfect." Calvin sat on the couch,  
  
"there was a trial a few days ago," he said, he told her the whole story.  
  
"Just like Hobbes," she said when he finished.  
  
"I know," Calvin said, "can I stay here overnight?"  
  
"Of course, honey."  
  
*****************  
The next morning, after Susan visited her parents next door, they went home. Susan thought they should go holiday shopping. Calvin brought his briefcase to do paperwork in the meantime. They were walking down the street when a man wearing a mask jumped out of an alley and pointed a gun at them.  
  
"you're money, now!" Calvin lunged to stop the man, who swung the gun and slammed it against his head. Calvin fell, and saw the man point the gun at Susan and start to pull the trigger, when suddenly an orange-and-black streak came out of nowhere and a tiger tackled the mugger and yanked the gun out of his hand, then, amazingly, stood on two legs and tossed the gun over it's shoulder. Calvin, Susan, the mugger, and everyone in sight all gaped in surprise, "miss me?" The tiger asked Calvin.  
  
"Hobbes!" Calvin exclaimed, he glanced over at his ripped open, destroyed briefcase, "you old stowaway!" Calvin stood and gave Hobbes a hug, he glanced over Hobbes' shoulder and saw the mugger retrieving the gun and pointing it at Hobbes, "NO!" Calvin yelled. He spun so he was between Hobbes and the mugger, just as he heard the shot. He squeezed his eyes shut.  
  
**************  
A second later he opened his eyes, and everything looked a lot bigger. He looked down at himself. The body he saw was that of a six-year-old boy, wearing a crimson costume, complete with a hood. A flattened bullet was at his feet. The mugger fainted. Susan walked over, bent, and picked him up. Her eyes, wide with amazement, met his.  
  
"Stupendous Man?" She said. He hugged her, and a second later his feet touched the ground. His body was that of an adult's again. A stuffed tiger lay on the ground. He picked it up and they went home.  
  
**************  
A year later, they were sitting at home. Hobbes was in a crib, next to Calvin...Jr.  



End file.
